Making history: C-SPAN visits a Union classroom

There were some additional guests in History Professor Andy Morris’s class this week.

A film crew hired by C-SPAN was on hand to tape a lesson for its “Lectures in History” series, part of the network’s American History TV programming. The series visits a college classroom each week and tapes a specific lecture. Recent spots have featured lectures from the U.S. Naval Academy, Ohio State and American universities. Morris, who has been teaching at Union since 2003, had been recommended by a colleague at another school.

The five-person crew arrived at dawn Wednesday to set up for the 8 a.m. lecture, “The Suburbs,” part of Morris’s class, “Postwar America and the Origins of the Cold War.” Morris waited until Monday to give the 18 students in his class a heads up “because I wanted to treat it like a regular class. I didn’t want the students to be nervous.”

For the most part, they weren’t, although Morris himself admitted he experienced some jitters when the class started. But once the lecture got rolling, things went smoothly.

Claire Kokoska ’15 said it was “fun and exciting” for the class to be featured on C-SPAN. The presence of four cameras and a boom mike in Lippman Hall 101 got some students who are typically reserved to open up.

“It seemed like they came out of their shells,” she said.

No air date has been set, as C-SPAN is stockpiling a number of lectures from around the country to spread out over several months. The lecture will also be available on demand on the web and in the C-SPAN video library.

“Lectures in History” airs at 8 p.m. and midnight each Saturday and 1 p.m. Sundays on C-SPAN3.